PERFORMANCE Signal 403
curl launches public performance test suite running every twenty minutes on a developer's local machine
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curl now publishes automated performance test results at curl.se/perf/, built with shell scripts, gnuplot, and a crontab that runs a new build and test round every twenty minutes.
Making performance numbers public immediately prompted curl developers to propose and merge changes that improved some metrics within hours. The setup is deliberately imperfect, running on a single-user development machine rather than dedicated hardware, but the project chose shipping something over waiting for an optimal solution.
Written by elseif from the cluster below · every claim links back to a sourceThe three things worth knowing
A crontab invokes a runner script every twenty minutes that pulls the latest curl commits from git, builds, and runs tests including downloading a 100 GB file from localhost.
A second script parses test logs and generates summaries and graphs using gnuplot, storing maximum, median, and minimum values when multiple rounds hit the same commit.
Publishing the data publicly triggered curl developers to propose performance-improving changes within hours of the first results going live.
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